COUNCIL chiefs have been given a £170,000 Government boost to help vulnerable people, it has emerged.

The welcome cash injection from the Department of Health will help ease the county's elderly care problems by providing more 'step down' beds for those leaving A&E.

The fund follows serious concern about so-called 'bed blocking' incidents, where frail pensioners are ready to leave Worcestershire Royal Hospital but cannot because of a lack of adult social care beds.

Your Worcester News can reveal how the fund is being tracked by the Department of Health on a monthly basis to ensure it is well spent.

Last year the county council was handed £520,000 for the same reason, with the top-up effectively creating a two-year kitty worth £690,000 to ease bed blocking.

Councillor Adrian Hardman, speaking during a full council meeting, said: "We'll spend it by ensuring the patient process works more efficiently, so the independent care sector works on a 24/7 basis and we don't have this build-up of people waiting ready for discharge at weekends."

There are more than 300 deliberately-assigned 'step down' beds in the county at the moment.

In May the latest figures showed 3,352 ‘bed days’ were lost at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, Kidderminster Hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital in March alone - or 32,017 across the last 12 months - as a result of an inability to discharge patients who were ready to leave.

A council new report on the spending also highlights some other Whitehall hand-downs which have been accepted by the authority.

As part of a £25 million nationwide fund known as "deprivation of liberty safeguard" cash, £254,360 is going to Worcestershire.

The county council will be responsible for detailing how it will be spent, with the money aimed towards making sure people transferred from hospital are cared for "in a way that does not restrict their freedom".

Elsewhere, £35,040 has been handed to the council to promote internships for people with special educational needs and disabilities.

And from a £14.8 million Government pot to make life easier for foster carers, the county council has been handed £157,783.

The fund is to allow more young people to continue to live with their foster carers once they reach the age of 18, known as the 'Staying Put' grant.

It encourages them to stay in the same household until they reach 21, with the report saying such an arrangements allows the teenager "to enter adult life with the same opportunities and life prospects" as their friends.